Ever had this problem? Please Read and See!

For some odd reason, this happens to me at home, during the prep course I took, AND sadly on the October administration, when I get to the LR section, my eyes begin to GLAZE over the words and while I am technically reading the words that's all I am really reading- WORDS AND LETTERS.

I cant, no matter how hard I try, read for comprehension. It was something out of a nightmare. Many friends say they feel the same thing sometimes but yet they can complete the exam I cant. In the middle of it, I felt myself fighting but no matter what I did to regroup it wouldnt work- my eyes were just reading words and not meaning.

Im really scared this will happen again.

Im open to seeing a doctor about it but Im not sure if it's just nerves since it does happen at home. I recently oredered the LSAT proctor dvd to see if it's just not being used to the environment and stresses that come along with it but I wanted to reach out to LSD and see if anyone has any experience with this problem?

This happened to me too, during practice tests. I think it is not so much a stress problem as becoming better at actively reading, especially when you are a somewhat lazy reader like me that is used to "skipping over" what doesn't make sense until you get to a part that you do understand and then using context clues to get the hard bit. With LR, you don't always get to a part that is "easy to understand." SO, my eyes would "skip over" the whole damn thing...i.e. "glaze over." I found I had to practice slowly, then build up to my normal fast reading. I assume you are re-taking in December...plenty of time to work up towards 30-minute LR sections.

This happened to me too, during practice tests. I think it is not so much a stress problem as becoming better at actively reading, especially when you are a somewhat lazy reader like me that is used to "skipping over" what doesn't make sense until you get to a part that you do understand and then using context clues to get the hard bit. With LR, you don't always get to a part that is "easy to understand." SO, my eyes would "skip over" the whole damn thing...i.e. "glaze over." I found I had to practice slowly, then build up to my normal fast reading. I assume you are re-taking in December...plenty of time to work up towards 30-minute LR sections.

I really appreciate your response. Honestly, I know it sounds corny, but I feel EXTREMELY lost and depressed right now. It's now not even a matter of getting questions right- my worry is that I wont even be able to read! It's a horrible feeling but I'm going to take your post and try and learn from some of the things you suggested.

When you have time, could you specify exactly what you did and how you did it to overcome this? December is my last chance and going to law school (though most people say this) has been my dream for a long time. I canceled right about 20 mins. into Section 2 when I was only on mumber 3 because of this problem. I dont want to go through that again- it was heartbreaking.

What I did for LR: did tests, cut them up, and sorted them into "types" of questions. Analyzed my answers (right and wrong) by type.

I used the Princeton Review's outline of different types of LR questions. I guess the Logical Reasoning Bibles is supposed to be better, but PR is what I used.

While reading I tried to ask questions: what is the conclusion of this passage? What are the premises? To get from the premises to the conclusion, what do I have to assume? Hint: the assumption is not in the passage, it's what you bring to the passage to make the conclusion jibe with the premises.

This actually happened to me too during the test this past Saturday where I would read but didn't know what I was reading...and I honestly felt horrible after the test. It wasn't until the third section that I started to maybe comprehend what I was reading. I think it's a mix of nerves/stress (my heart was racing a mile a minute) and also I am not a fast reader to begin with so maybe both of those combined for the best of us. For people like us, all I can say is don't give up. I've wanted to go to law school since high school and I felt like *&^% (and still do) after this test. I will most likely take it again in Dec. too. Hang in there...

This actually happened to me too during the test this past Saturday where I would read but didn't know what I was reading...and I honestly felt horrible after the test. It wasn't until the third section that I started to maybe comprehend what I was reading. I think it's a mix of nerves/stress (my heart was racing a mile a minute) and also I am not a fast reader to begin with so maybe both of those combined for the best of us. For people like us, all I can say is don't give up. I've wanted to go to law school since high school and I felt like poo (and still do) after this test. I will most likely take it again in Dec. too. Hang in there...

Im so sorry you had to go through that. I know it must be devastating. Although I am sad you fell under that same hole as I did I'm happy to know that you and I arent the only ones. Let's keep the hope and use these 2 months to really concentrate and make an effort to simulate test conditions- whether it be taking an exam in a noisy atmosphere or tricking yourself into believing it's the real thing and it will count so we can get that same nervousness back and learn how to deal with it effectively.

I ordered the LSAT proctor dvd and Ill let you know if that helps me any with this problem.

I have this problem in general as well, even when practicing though I don't think it ever affected me as greatly as you. All the time doing LR sections, I knew I was slowing myself down because I would be slightly bored so I would read the first sentence and into the second and realize I wasn't actually paying attention or comprehending, and so I'd have to back and re-read it. On the LSAT, contrary to this, after bombing the last game, I was so pissed off and thought the whole thing didn't matter anymore, that I had like crazy focus and wasn't doing that (but I was also speeding through the questions, so I"m sure I made some mistakes). The only thing I can do about it is be aware and try to engage. When it happens, I just try to actively fight it and think about the words I'm reading and what they mean. I know that's probably not that helpful but for me, it's something I just try and force myself to do. It never got the point though where I wasn't finishing sections. It would just slow me down. If I wasn't like that, I could probably complete LR with about 5 minutes to spare, but meh.

When I studied and took the GMAT I had the same problem. For the test what I did wastell myself, at the start of every question, "This is the only question on the test". This prevented me from thinking ahead or behind or worry about my timing. This worked for me and eliminated “man I have read this three times already”. If you are going to a doctor you may want to consider a sports psychologist or a hypnotist since this sounds performance related.

When I studied and took the GMAT I had the same problem. For the test what I did wastell myself, at the start of every question, "This is the only question on the test". This prevented me from thinking ahead or behind or worry about my timing. This worked for me and eliminated “man I have read this three times already”. If you are going to a doctor you may want to consider a sports psychologist or a hypnotist since this sounds performance related.

Was your prep class at all helpful? How are your practice test scores? If you're having these problems, is it possible that you are still having trouble understanding how to answer certain question types?